O Love Your Pipes

Staff at NEW Water, the brand of the Green Bay (Wis.) Metropolitan Sewerage District, sing “O Love Your Pipes” in a community education video to relay the importance of not flushing wipes or putting grease down the drain. Photo courtesy of Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District.

Staff at NEW Water, the brand of the Green Bay (Wis.) Metropolitan Sewerage District, have created a holiday-themed video featuring a song called “O Love Your Pipes” sung to the tune of “O Christmas Tree,” to relay the importance of not flushing wipes or putting grease and certain other items down the drain.

Tricia Garrison, communications and education coordinator at NEW Water, said the inspiration for the video came from Southern Water (Worthing, England), which produced a holiday song called “We Three Ps,” sung to the tune of “We Three Kings.”

NEW Water released the video in December 2014 to educate their community by using humor. Photo courtesy of Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District.

After brainstorming lyrics with her musically inclined, 7-year-old daughter, Garrison developed the video with people from across the NEW Water facility.

“Educating people about water issues is difficult, considering the amount of competition for people’s attention,” Garrison said. “So it’s nice when you can find that sweet spot to use humor — it’s more effective than taking a doom-and-gloom tone.”

NEW Water received positive feedback from the community and intends to roll out the video again this holiday season.

— Jeff Gunderson,WEF Highlights

WEF Highlights Showcases Flushables Outreach Efforts

As the nondispersibles issue continues to grow, utilities are turning to humor and lighthearted messages to educate the public. In the footsteps of the Singing Sewermen from Thames Water (London), utilities are creating unique and humorous public service announcements (PSAs) and campaigns to educate the public about what can and cannot go down the drain or toilet. Find WEF Highlights articles featuring these efforts by searching for the keyword FlushablePSA.

Have a unique flushable PSA to share? Send it to Jennifer Fulcher, WEF Highlights editor, at jfulcher@wef.org.